Using marijuana during pregnancy may increase the risk of having a child with autism, a new study suggests.
The findings come months after the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya noted an increase in recreational use of marijuana in the country.
Currently, one per cent of Kenyans including expectant women aged 15-65 years are regular users of marijuana – also known in street lingo as ngwai, ganja, vela, shash, ombitho, herb or yath, among other names.
In the analysis of data from more than 500,000 mothers and their children, researchers found a 50 per cent increase in the risk of autism spectrum disorder in kids whose mothers had used cannabis while pregnant, according to the report by Nature Medicine.
“Cannabis is not a benign drug and any use during pregnancy should be discouraged,” the study’s lead author Daniel Corsi, a scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Ontario Research Institute, said.
Earlier studies indicated that the use of the substance by pregnant women could affect a foetus’s neurodevelopment
“There are cannabinoid receptors present in the developing foetus and exposure to cannabis may impact the wiring of the developing brain,” the study said.
In March, PSK urged the National Assembly to enhance access to medical marijuana by amending the Narcotics and Psychotropic Control Act (1994).
Executive director Daniella Munene noted widespread use of marijuana in the country, but those requiring it the most unable to access it.
“We find it odd that the drug is widely abused, widely available although illegally. We are trying to persuade the government to create these frameworks to allow the medical cannabis to be used and the centre of that control should be the Pharmacy and Poisons Board,” Munene said.
She said lack of a legal framework guiding the supply of the drug denies many patients the medical benefits provided by it.
“The law currently provides for four categories of people to possess medical marijuana. However, the law does not give a framework for the supply. So, a patient who needs this product is denied because of lack of the drug within the medical supply chain,” Munene said.
Cannabis is listed as a narcotic drug, which subsequently criminalises its possession, cultivation, production and use. Despite these stringent controls, it is one of the most used narcotics countrywide as per a 2015 study by the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse.
Prof Lukoye Atwoli, an associate professor of psychiatry, believes that marijuana use should be decriminalised.
“My view is that we are agitating for the decriminalisation of substance use. This means removing offences related to substance use from statute books. Those with problematic use need help, not jail,” Prof Atwoli said.
Other famous supporters of marijuana legalisation include Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko, former Nyamira Senator Kennedy Mong'are and the late Kibra legislator Kenneth Okoth.
Edited by Henry Makori